Navistar may restart plans for Lisle HQ

Engine maker had scrapped move because of local opposition

June 10, 2010|By Gerry Smith, Tribune reporter

Navistar International Corp. leaders will meet Monday with state and local officials to discuss options that could persuade the engine manufacturer to renew plans to move its headquarters to Lisle, officials said Thursday.

Navistar International Corp. leaders will meet Monday with state and local officials to discuss options that could persuade the engine manufacturer to renew plans to move its headquarters to Lisle, officials said Thursday.

The talks will come two weeks after Warrenville-based Navistar decided to scrap plans to move to the former Alcatel-Lucent site in Lisle, saying local opposition to the project was "jeopardizing our image."

In recent days, state officials have stepped up their efforts to prevent Navistar from moving out of Illinois and taking thousands of jobs and millions of dollars with it. Navistar officials previously said they were also exploring headquarters locations in Alabama, Texas and South Carolina.

On Thursday, company officials expressed a measure of optimism about Monday's meeting, when state and local officials will present Navistar with "different ideas on how to make this thing work," said Don Sharp, Navistar's vice president and chief information officer.

"I think the door has cracked open a little bit," Sharp said.

Among those in attendance will be aides to Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and Attorney General Lisa Madigan as well as Lisle Mayor Joseph Broda, officials said.

Sharp declined to discuss what options had been suggested to Navistar in recent days, but said, "We owe it to our supporters to sit down and have a conversation and talk about what those options are."

On Thursday, Broda said, "I will do everything humanly possible to make that site work for them." The site, he said, "was made for Navistar. That's the perfect building for them."

However, one idea being floated to keep Navistar in the west suburbs is to allow the company to move to a building across the street from its planned headquarters at 2600 Warrenville Road, according to state Rep. Darlene Senger, R-Naperville.

That building, which straddles the border between Naperville and Lisle, has an industrial zoning designation, meaning Navistar would not be required to go through a drawn-out zoning process.

"That is something we do have in our pocket right now to offer them," Senger said.

The company's plans for a new headquarters in Lisle required a hearing process before the village's Planning and Zoning Commission that Senger said was "like a trial."

In one November hearing before the commission, about 100 people spoke out against Navistar's proposal, including nearby residents and representatives of a school for autistic children that had just opened next door to the building.

They opposed Navistar's move to the Alcatel-Lucent site in part because of worries about air pollution, noise, traffic and safety issues. Navistar, now based about three miles away, has maintained that those fears are unfounded.

Navistar scaled back plans for engine testing at the site, and school officials dropped their opposition. However, a few residents have remained wary.